Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Mists of Pandaria?

MMO-Champion is reporting that Blizzard has trademarked the phrase "Mists of Pandaria". Apparently the timing and technical details of the trademark are leading people to speculate that this will be the title of the next WoW expansion.

It could be true. A mysterious continent, maybe magically hidden until the Cataclysm revealed it, would be an interesting setting for an expansion.

I don't think Pandaren will be a playable race, though. Which faction would they belong to? What race would the other faction get? If anything, I thing Blizzard should go with making them a neutral race, maybe one that both the Alliance and the Horde are courting for favor.

Another argument against a Pandaren expansion is that it would not be "epic" enough. The last two expansions have been the Lich King and Deathwing. Pandaren are simply not in that league.

While this is a good point, I wouldn't mind a quieter expansion. A little less world-destroying threats, and a narrower, more detailed focus.

So is Mists of Pandaria the next expansion? I have no idea, but Blizzcon this year should be very interesting.

I agree that the Pandas would likely be a neutral race if this is the next expansion. Blizzard has previously stated that they don't want to do back to back expansions with new races because of the art requirements, and having the Pandas be neutral reduces that strain (while keeping Panda fans of both factions happy).

"While this is a good point, I wouldn't mind a quieter expansion. A little less world-destroying threats, and a narrower, more detailed focus."

You don't really want WoW then dude. Everything in the Azerothian universe is geared around conflict and it's effects on the denizens. There is always a threat to thwart, a conspiracy to unravel and a god to bring to his damnable knees. A "quieter" expansion just isn't... Warcraft...

--G!, it cannot really be TCG related, since the trademark specifically mentions computer games, discs, and all the stuff Blizzard typically puts into the WoW boxes.

I would love to see a quiter expansion as well, though: I personally didn't mind the often lamented disconnect between the rather quite leveling in TBC and its villain, so as long as Blizzard finds something in the lore to act as raid bosses or a threat for us to work against during 85-90 I am fine...

I hope you're on the right track. Honestly, I thought it would have made much more sense for Goblins to have been a neutral race that were able to choose their allegiance. Especially now with the overabundance of neutral goblin towns.

I like the idea of Pandarens in some form, and obviously they can create conflict through anything. That's all Cataclysm is. The Lich King has been around since WC3, but Deathwing's destruction is definitely something new they concocted just for the expansion.

Whatever the new expansion is, it's going to be hard to keep my attention over D3. Wow can only retain my sense of awe and wonder so for long.

I think a "quieter expansion" is possible. Include a bunch of milder threats (Kul Tiras, Zandalar trolls, etc), with one major threat sneaking up on everybody - a threat that's only fully revealed at or near the end of the expansion. The Naga and Queen Azshara would fit this perfectly.

To be fair, 'Mists of Pandaria' only really tells us of a possible location and presence of Pandaren. It doesn't tell us anything of the antagonists or what dangers may be faced. That much is still a total mystery :)

@Shannara I very much doubt that "Mists of Pandaria" has anything to do with Titan. They've indicated mutiple times that Titan is new intellectual property. To start with a joke out of Warcraft, and was then in RPG books for the Warcraft universe doesn't exactly sound like "new" intellectual property.I'm more likely to beleive TCG or expansion. Besides, the tinfoil-hat stuff is great fun.

Knowing Blizzard, I'd say this is almost certainly a way to throw ppl off, some kind of joke... They'd have to know that ppl are watching for this kind of thing. I'm just not buying it, they'll trademark the title of the next patch closer to it's announcement.